we have been having intermittant problems with our GPS starting up on a cold seattle morning. yesterday the dealer -- NW mini -- told me that they had a bulletin from mini saying that the system could have problems under 37 degree F. i think that's very odd.

why would electronics have a problem with temperature?

any other cold weather GPS users out there? have you had problems with your GPS starting up before the car warms up?

thanks,

curt

 

>>we have been having intermittant problems with our GPS starting up on a cold seattle morning. yesterday the dealer -- NW mini -- told me that they had a bulletin from mini saying that the system could have problems under 37 degree F. i think that's very odd.
>>
>>why would electronics have a problem with temperature?
>>
>>any other cold weather GPS users out there? have you had problems with your GPS starting up before the car warms up?
>>
>>thanks,
>>
>>curt


Yes. I live and work north of Chicago. Libertyville. My nav quits in freezing weather until the cockpit temps comes up, apparently. It's only happened twice so far.
PerfPow

 

I live in NY, my car has sat in 20 degree temps, NAV comes on right away. Could be a defect, should call MINIUSA and make them fix it.

 

>>any other cold weather GPS users out there? have you had problems with your GPS starting up before the car warms up?


We've been having the same problem with our nav system too. We're taking it in on Tuesday. If there is a TSB, there should be some explanation as to why this is happening. I'll make sure to ask and report back.

 

Does anyone know if Mini actually released a TSB for the nav system vs. cold weather issue?

Reason I ask is that we took the car in for this problem under warranty. One minor hangup though; they say they can't do anything about it unless they can duplicate the problem (they weren't aware of any TSB either). They want us to leave the car with them overnight so that they can try to duplicate the problem first thing in the morning. Fair enough... however, we live in Southern California, and predicting a cold enough morning around here to cause the nav to not work is not easy.

Damn those gremlins...

 

On christmas day when the car was partially covered in snow the nav took ~30 seconds to come on and it's been happening pretty constantly since then. It doesn't seem to matter whether the car cockpit is cold or not since it seems to happen when ever the car is turned off and on. it's not a huge problem but it is a nuisance since i have to wait half a minute for the screen to come on everytime i start the car up. From what It could be that the problem has something to do with cd player working in the cold but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the cockpit temp in my case anyways. Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

 

I am not sure if it is a LCD on the GPS, but I have had car stereos and PDAs that had LCD or LCD-like screens. They all shared the same sensitivity to cold. Until things warmed up, nothing showed up on their screens. Perhaps that is the problem. In which case, I am not too sure there is anything Mini can do as the screen has to be exposed to be able to see it.

Too bad, as I ordered the NAV and live in a cold climate. :???:

 

I had this happen this morning. Did anyone ever hear anything from their dealers? It was 25 degrees this morning. This is the only prob I've had so far though!

 

I have a GPS in my boat but never go out unless it
is above 65 degrees . It may be 37 or below in Florida
where I am going to be tomorrow so I'll bring my
handheld Magellan and see if it has a problem. I'll
let you know. I don't have Nav in the car though.

 

Thanks! Hopefully when I leave work tonight it will be back to normal......for a while

 

I am in NY and have been having intermittent problems with the nav starting up. It doesn't seem to have to do witht the actual temperature, though - it started immediately yesterday when it was 7 degrees out - but when it was 30 degrees, the other day, it wouldn't go on at all.

I spoke to the service manager at Prestige - he hadn't heard about it being a cold weather problem, but he did say he has already had to replace several of them. I asked them if that solved the problem for those customers and he told me it did.

The curious thing is that if this is a problem in general, why would a new one fix the problem? I'm not sure, but I guess I will find out in the next few days.

I can't believe I need service in less than a week from my delivery date!

 

>>we have been having intermittant problems with our GPS starting up on a cold seattle morning. yesterday the dealer -- NW mini -- told me that they had a bulletin from mini saying that the system could have problems under 37 degree F. i think that's very odd.
>>
>>why would electronics have a problem with temperature?

Curt -- last nite it was 13 here and mine came on just fine.

In general, cold problems have little to do with the electronics per se. The areas that can show problems fall into three areas:

1. The fluid goo inside LCD displays changes characteristics. It has to transmit light from the electroluminescent display panel behinf the LCD element, and it can get pretty opaque. As an example, take a cheap 4-function calculator or wrist watch with
LCD display and leave it out on the cold porch overnite. I'll bet that the display will be black in the morning, and then will recover when it warms up.

The second problem areas are mechanical. I can think of a couple of examples --

2. Connectors -- the various modules have to be interconnected with real wires. Some of the interconnects can involve a LOT of very small wires -- like from the microprocessor to the LCD panel, between boards in the computer etc. IMHO, 90% of electronics problems comes from interconnects. Sometimes simply unplugging a connector and re-seating it can solve the problem.

3. The CD player in the computer box under the seat. The data on the CD is read by a very small laser on the end of an actuator that moves the laser across the CD. The laser groves are really tiny -- comparable to the wavelength of the laser's light color. If the cold changes the "drag" of the positioner servo (material contrantion, lubricants getting sticky, etc), then the CD may get to be unreadible until it warms up. Another mechanical problem can come from the motor that spins the CD at a smooth, precise speed. It could be dragging (remember "wow" and "flutter" on vinyl LP records?).

Some diagnostic ideas.

a. When you open the door and pop in the key, does the MINI logo appear on the LCD? Does anything at all apper on the LCD. If so, then Cause #1 is probably not a problem. Also the computer and its interconnects are ok.

b. Does it start to work OK when it gets warm? I'll bet that the display unit warms up in ~5 minutes, before the underseat CPU in ~10 minutes, and before the actual GPS rcvr [the right-rear fender (rougly where the Gas cap is located on the left side)] which might take 20 minutes.

You can tell the dealer that SOME units work fine into the 'teens in Maryland. I'd ask them to do a warranty replacement of an expensive option!

Tom